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EUROPE83 In this issue The steeltown that refused to lie down. By Roy Stemman 3 Gaston Thorn: fears and hopes for the June summit 6 Questions in the House 7 Closer ties with Jugoslavia. By Chris Lom 8 It's looking good for equal rights 9 Wanted: policies to stop the North-South drift. By Malcom Subhan lO Published by the Commission ofthe European Communities, 20 Kensington A re-think on the politics of aid. By Peggy Crane 12 Palace Gardens, London W8 4QQ. Why quitting Europe may not be too hard on Greenland 13 Tel: 01-727 8090 Editor-in-Chief: Ge.orge Scott Judge Pierre Pescatore explains the role of the European Court 14 Editor: John Greenwood Believe it or not- they like it here. By Roy Stemman 16 Associate Editor: Denis Thomas Design: Lawrence Edwards Community reports 18 Printed by Lawrence-Alien Ltd, A plea for children of the Fourth World 20 Weston-super-Mare, Avon 21 Europe 83 does not necessarily reflect, in all New life for Lascaux particulars, the opinions of the Community Need we fear the arrival of 1984? By Richard Burke 22 institutions. Unsigned material may be quoted or reprinted without payment, Letters 23 subject to suitable acknowledgement. What's in the papers 24 Btl/tUI 0/fiu: Windsor Hou.e, 9115 Bedford Street, Bclfut BT2 7EG Tel. (0232)240708 EUROFORUM is inset after page 12. Cardif/0/fiu: 4 Cathedral Road, CardiffCF!9SG Tel. (0222) 371631 Edi"'-tlt 0[/kt: 7 Alva Street, n page 6 of this iSsue, Mr Gaston Thorn, Edinburgh EH2 4PH Tel. (031)225 2058 OPresident of the European CommiSsion, Associated editions: speaks of the crisis facing the European Ewrope,2100MSueet,NW, Community. Suite 707, Washington DC 20037, USA Tel. 202 8629500 One major feature of that crisis is the E~~rope, 350 Sparks Street, Suite 1110, Otuwa, inadequacy of financial resources to meet Ontario, Canada KIR 7S8. Tel. (6 13) 238-6464 either present demands or future needs. Too c_,n,y Repmt, 39 Molawortb Street, large a slice ofthe Community budget is being Dublin l,lrdand Tel. 712244 consumedby agriculture; too little is left. to ~ JQ}()IIIfd'EIIItlf>e, 61 rue des Bdla fund action to mitigate the worst effects of Feuilles, 75782ParisCedex 16, France. Tel. 50158 85 world recession and to offer new hope to regions and individuals c-ilD Ellltlf>el, Via Poli 29, for whom present prospects are bleak. Furthermore, the inequities 00187Rome,ltaly. Tel. 67897 22 ofnational contributions-conspicuously, that of the United EF-IlfliJen Gammd Torv 4, PostBox 144,1004CopenN~en K, Kingdom- continue to generate damaging political tensions Denmult. Td 14414011455 32 within the Community and between member-governments. EG M ,..V., Zitelmumstmte 22, 5300 Boon, w. Germany As promised, the CommiSsion has now produced proposals for Te1.238041 expanding Community resources and for spreading them more c-tmiJDdao-opu, Serraao,41-5a planta Madrid-!, Spain evenly and more widely. EUROPE 83 will report 1n subsequent issues Td.4741199 upon reactions to those proposals. EuropaiAi Koinolis, 2 Vauilissis Sofias, T .K.I602,Athens 134,Greece What the Commission is seeking to provide is a newbasis for Tel. 743 98213/4 collective and co-operative activity by the ten member states. What E~~ropa-bni&lll,EUR ittfo, Ardlimedasuaat 73, was done 1n the past was well done; but the Community is 1040 Bnwd, ilel8ium changing, as the world iS cha.nging, and the machinery by which Td.l354178 the Community is powered and operated must also change. Ecltos tk rE~. Bltimcnt Jean Monnet, Luxembours-Kirchberg Only the member governments can provide the political will to Tel. 43011 A m.pa T opltdup, 13 Bopz Sokak bring about the change. Kavaklidere, Ankara, Turkey GEORGESCOTT Tei.27614S 2 EUROPE83 The steeltown that refused to lie down fall its plans materialise, Corby, in Northamptonshire, could be the home When steelmaking ended at of Britain's first national 'theme park', Corby a couple of years ago, Iattractin g five million visitors a year by the town set about building a 1991. Supplying energy for the vast complex would be the first UK heat and new future for itself. ROY power station. STEMMAN has been to see T he town's two projects look certain to de velop. And they will do so with the help and how it is getting on support of the EEC, which has already given considerable financial aid to Corby- which a couple ofyears ago faced financial ruin. I first reported on Corby at the beginning of 1981 (EUROPE8l, March), and it might be use vironment nuruster at the time, Michael ful to outline briefly its story again, so as to put Heseltine, visited the town in June 1981, to these later developments into perspective. cut the last piece of symbolic red tape. The town sits above a vast ironstone field; and Three separate areas, totalling 280 acres of it is this geological chance which brought it land, were rapidly developed for industrial success and - ultimately-heartache. use; and the town, under the slogan 'Corby Until1934ithadonly 1500inhabitants, but Works', set about attracting new business the arrival of Stewart & Lloyds soon changed with the very appealing ten-yearpackage of that. The company moved toCorbyinorderto incentives-including exemption from de extract the iron and convert it into steel strip to velopment land tax and local authority rates make tubes. In just two years the workforce which were made possible by its new status. grew to twice the size of the original popula H as it worked? I went back to Corby in tion, and continued to grow. April to find out. I spoke first to the man at the ness Machines are just moving here and they Expansion and prosperity continued hand centre of the industrial revival, Fred will employ 250 people. in hand for more than 40 years, during which McCienaghan, Corby's director of industry. 'What pleases us is the variety ofin dustries: time the company became part ofB ritish Steel 'Out of 280 acres of Enterprise Zone land,' from clay pigeons, grave stones, reproduction Corporation. By the mid-1970s it was em he told me, 'we have only 20 acres left, and furniture, caravans, fire doors, wellie boots ploying 12,000 men, 1,000 women, and pro they are under negotiation. There are already to computers, foods and flavourings, plastics ducing over 100,000 miles of steel tubes a 1,500 people working in the zone.' and medical disposables.' year. Corby was steel. That was its strength But that is only part of Corby's success £225 million of private investment has and its weakness. story. Many companies, attracted by its En- poured into Corby in this comparatively short Fears about the town's dependency on a . terprise Zone incentives, visited the town to period. The disappointment for Corby is that, single industry grew rapidly in the 1970s as the see ifi t was suitable for their operations. They despite the massive influx of new business, its imminent world recession cast its shadows be liked what they saw, but the land in the zone unemployment rate has not fallen below 20 fore it. Steel development plans throughout was not always suitable for their needs. They per cent. BSC still makes steel tubes there the UK were hastily abandoned. have opened up elsewhere in the area. the raw material is now made in other parts of Corby had already anticipated its fate, with 'Some 180 companies have moved to Corby the country. But, whereas Corby provided the publication ofa strategy plan, by the time in the last few years,' Fred McClenaghan ex 12,500 jobs in 1978, it now employs only BSC announced that iron and stee.l making at plained, 'and they are providing jobs for 3,500 3,000. The slimming-down operation con Corby were to cease. The town immediately workers. Associated British Tobacco has in tinues- a further 600 employees were paid off became a development area, enabling it to vested £25 million in two plants. RS Compo this year. offer various inducements to industry to move nents, which distributes electronic compo What Corby has done, however, is to con in. A £6V4 million re-adaptation grant from nents, probably occupies 10 per cent of the tain its unemployment problem. While the the European Coal and Steel Community Enterprise Zone area, and Commodore Busi- national figure has risen from eight to 14 per helped cushion the financial blow to redun cent, Corby's has been more or less steady. dant steel workers. What is more, it has been able to hold out the It was to discover how Cor by was planning hope of new jobs to its inhabitants, and con to overcome its almost insuperable problems tinues to do so. Few face the prospect oflong that I paid my first visit to the town, 85 miles term unemployment. north of London, over two years ago. What I F urther industrial development is planned, could not reveal at the time (it was announced with another 500 acres about to be developed, in April that year) was that Corby was to be giving hope to the 6,000 people in Corby who come Britain's first Enterprise Zone. The En- are still without a job. Meanwhile, Corby has even more ambitious plans which could re duce the number of jobless dramatically. ~ith EEC help, the The idea is to create a huge leisure industry around a 'theme park' dedicated to Great Bri town's two new tain. At the heart of the scheme will be a proiects look certain 500,000 sq ft glass building- inspired by the Crystal Palace - housing ten pavilions, each to develop' with its own entertaining and educational Duncan Hall signs the £250 million theme, such as filming, communications, and ~ Wonderworld agreement.